I just don’t understand why it’s so coveted. Is this some contrived scheme from McDonald’s? We want what we can’t have. But we shouldn’t want this. If they offered it year round, it simply wouldn’t sell!

It’s got a chemical from gym mats banned in Europe, for crying out loud! And its look is not appealing, plain and simple.

In fact, McRib was offered year-round starting in 1981, and was dropped for lackluster sales four years later, only to be reinstated in 1994. The first “farewell tour” was in 2005, and ever since then McRib has been available only sporadically.

The gym-mat chemical, incidentally, is azodicarbonamide, aka E927, used to enhance the bun. US law permits up to 45 parts per million. The European Union considers the stuff “harmful.” I’m guessing that the German McRib, which doesn’t go on hiatus, doesn’t have it.

I remember trying one when they first came out. Different strokes for different folks, I guess…I’m pretty uninterested that they’re back, other than as maybe an interesting sociological phenomenon.

That said….I might consider going on a pilgrimage to find certain types of chocolate bars. (There’s a salted-chocolate-and-panko-breadcrumbs one. The local grocery carried it for about 6 months and I have not seen it since…)

“Subby just ate a McRib. Yes, we know they’re made of cigarette butts and toxic waste and the sauce is made of unicorn blood and the tears of orphans and they cook it by lighting Lucifer’s flatulence on fire. But darn it — it’s tasty”